A New Hope
by Drakiri
Summary: Third in a series, Faith and Dawn's daughter Hope is about to face her destiny, but can she save the world or will her dreams of the future come true and who will save her when she needs it.
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: This is the third story in a series - best to read the previous two, Have a Little Faith and The Special Two so you can figure out what the hell's going on.

As stated previously at the end of The Special Two this story takes place approximately sixteen years after the events of that story and will be based mostly around the life of Faith and Dawn's daughter Hope although all the usual suspects will be making an occasional guest appearance.

I have decided this time around to write in shorter chapters - it means more frequent updates and less of a headache for me editing but let me know if you prefer the longer ones and I might change my mind.

This first few chapters will set things up - some of the history of the sixteen years inbetween, the new characters etc. but it will get more actiony soon I promise.

Anyway enough of my drabble and on with the story...

The young woman stood silently on top of the hill, the ceaseless, unchanging wind whipping her long, dark brown hair across her face.

She absently brushed it away, revealing the vivid, dark-red scar that ran along her right cheek. Her eyes scanned the bleak and blasted landscape below her, the monotonous grey colour broken only by the few trees that still clung stubbornly to life, and made worse by the dark thunderclouds that hovered, ever-present, overhead, forever blocking out the sun.

She surveyed the horizon, not really looking for anything in particular, just remaining watchful, danger was everywhere in this new world and since The Fall her life had revolved around one thing, survival. Food was scarce and clean drinking water even scarcer, few buildings had survived the destruction let alone anything useful like a supermarket, the army of The First had vowed to wipe out all trace of the plague of man off the face of the earth and had done an admirable job of it, now she and the few remaining 'free' humans were left to scavenge off the bones of what remained of their past, and what their 'betters' left behind.

"Hope." The faint sound of a vaguely familiar voice caused the young woman to turn and look around her suspiciously, gripping the Scythe tighter.

"Hope." The voice was louder now and reminded her of distant and far more pleasant days, days where she hadn't been hunted constantly like an animal and had been able to get more than an hour's sleep at a time.

"HOPE."

Hope's eyes snapped open and she groaned softly as the shreds of her dream still clung to her, she'd been having these dreams, nightmares, of the future regularly ever since she was twelve, but they still never failed to affect her and usually left her feeling crappy for the rest of the day.

"If you don't get your butt down here in five minutes young lady you're going to miss school." Faith's voice rang up the stairs from the kitchen below.

"Yeah and that would be a world-ending sitch." Hope muttered softly under her breath then cast a wary eye at her bedroom door. Years of personal experience had taught her to be careful when she said anything aloud; both her parents seemed to have some kind of superhuman hearing even if only one of them was an actual Slayer.

She dragged herself reluctantly out of bed and over to her closet, Hope knew Faith's threat wasn't an idle one so if she wanted to eat breakfast she was going to have to be quick in choosing her clothes for the day, and she was always hungry these days, one of many things her parents attributed to raging teenage hormones.

Hope quickly picked out some clothes and tried them on, studying herself critically in the mirror as she did so.

Everyone, especially friends of her mom, always commented on how much she looked like her, in fact sometimes when they were out shopping together people mistook them for sisters, which never failed to please her mom.

Hope could, however grudgingly, see the resemblance; she had the same tall, lithe body, the same long brown hair and bright blue eyes, the same flawless, pale white skin lightly dusted with the occasional freckle and the same full, red lips.

There were some differences though, she was slightly taller than her mom, her face more rounded, her body more toned and she had also inherited a couple of things from Faith, namely the dimples in her cheeks and a rather well-developed and as it happened, early blossoming chest region, something which had gained her a large amount of unwelcome attention from the male population at her school.

It wasn't like she hated all boys, she did have a couple of guy friends, it was just that she wasn't interested in them in that way. She could still actually remember the day she told her parents she was only interested in girls, she had been the ripe old age of ten when she'd walked into the living room and solemnly announced to her bemused mom and Faith that all boys were yucky and that she was completely in love with Alice Peters.

Her mom had sat her down the next day and carefully explained to her that just because she and Faith were together didn't mean that Hope had to like girls too, it was OK to like boys, in fact it was more common for girls to like boys then other girls.

But she had been adamant back then about her feelings, and in the last six years nothing had happened to change her mind even if a few people had tried to change it for her.

Hope gave her reflection one last glance and nodded in approval, she just knew the outfit was going to get a disapproving comment from her mom, something along the lines of 'too tight and too low' referring to both her top and jeans but she simply didn't care, after all she had seen pictures of the way both her mom and Faith had dressed when they were her age and there wasn't a lot of difference to the way she was dressed now, OK maybe she did have on a little less material but it covered all the strategic areas so she couldn't see what the problem was.

Hope grabbed her bag and headed down the stairs, turning right at the bottom step into the kitchen and into the smell of freshly made pancakes. Her mom stood in front of the stove, frying-pan and spatula in hand while Faith stood behind her, her arms wrapped loosely around her mom's waist as she whispered something in her ear.

A small smile crossed Hope's lips, it was nice to see them together like that even if it was kind of gross to see her parents acting all couply, they had gone through a rough patch a few years ago, a lot of arguments and fights that eventually reached a point where her mom had left the house, taking her and her brother Will to stay at their Uncle Angel and Aunt Buffy's for a few months.

That had been the worse time in Hope's life, coinciding as it did with the onset of her dreams, which had led to them being diagnosed as a reaction to the stress of her home-life situation, until they had kept right on recurring even after her parents had reconciled and moved back in together.

Faith turned away from her mom long enough to notice Hope standing in the doorway. "Thought you were going to sleep the whole day away Kiddo."

"No, just the morning." Hope replied, moving past her to take a plate of pancakes from her mom.

There was a reproachful look in her mom's eyes when she spied her outfit but strangely there was no comment to match, causing Hope to thank whichever deity was looking over her at that moment, her mom just continued to plate up more pancakes for herself and Faith and then went to sit at the table.

Hope sat down at the table across from her brother Will, seizing the butter and syrup from in front of him. She shot a glance at him to see if he had noticed but, as seemed the norm these days, he completely ignored her.

If you hadn't known that her and Will were twins you would never have guessed it by looking at them, Will resembled Faith as much as she resembled their mom, except obviously in a more masculine way.

He was actually taller than Hope but seemed shorter because of his stockier build and he shared the same olive skin, black hair and big, brown eyes with Faith. His classic good looks and athletic frame had made him a firm favourite of the girls at their school, something he took great pleasure in and which Hope was intensely jealous of.

The large stack of pancakes in front of Hope rapidly diminished and just as she was looking around for some more, Faith picked up her car keys off the counter and opened the back door.

"OK guys lets go." Faith said, ushering them towards the open door and out to the car.

Will stood up and nonchalantly wandered out without comment but before Hope could follow her path was blocked by their Mom.

"Now remember Hope, Faith will be at school to pick you up after you've finished detention. Bar anything short of an apocalypse I want you coming straight home."

That was the reason for the lack of comment about her clothing; her mom had something else on her mind. "Whatever."

"Hope, I mean it." Her mom said warningly.

"What, I said I'll be there," Hope answered impatiently. "What more do you want?"

And now there was that look in her mom's eyes, that hurt but still loving look that Hope couldn't bear to meet and never failed to make her feel guilty. "Nothing," her mom said quietly. "Just get to school, and try not to get into any more trouble."

Hope walked past her, eyes downcast, and out to the car. All the way to school she brooded on the unfairness of her latest trip to detention and didn't utter a single word, which wasn't a huge problem as neither Faith nor Will were big talker's anyway.

Two days previously she'd stopped a small, defenceless little guy from being picked on by four Neanderthal jocks from the football team. She had done the right thing and stepped in, managing to persuade the jocks that maybe it would be better to pick on someone her own size, unfortunately her form of 'persuasion' had left one of the jocks with a broken nose and the others with bruises of various interesting shades, all of which had caught the attention of first the school nurse and then the Principal.

After she'd relayed her version of events it had turned out that the guy she'd tried to help had gone along with the jocks story which had her violently interrupting their innocent prank, and this, coupled with her less than stellar disciplinary record, had landed her a week's stint in detention, again, and had also landed her in her mother's bad books, again.

"Here we are." Faith announced as she pulled up in front of the school. Hope mutely opened her door and climbed out of the car. "And Hope," Faith's voice stopped her in her tracks. "Stay cool yeah?"

"Sure." Hope mumbled and quickly strode off before Faith could add anything else.

Will walked off in the opposite direction and over to his group of friends, the popular group, who had made it clear on numerous occasions that she wasn't welcome into their exclusive little clique no matter whose sister she was.

She and Will had been almost inseparable as kids, they had done everything and gone everywhere together, hung out with the same friends and gotten into the same trouble but around the same time as they had first entered junior high they had begun to drift apart and now barely spoke to each other or even acknowledged each other's existence beyond the inevitable sibling spats.

"Hope over here." Hope was shaken from her brooding by the cry and looking up, spied her best friend in the whole, entire universe Vanessa, waving her frantically over. She smiled ruefully and headed in that direction, Vanessa had the kind of bouncy, bubbly, vivacious personality that made her either a joy to be around or would make you cheerfully strangle her to death, and sometimes even Hope had to admit that she was in the second group.

Hope knew that she and Nessa made an odd pairing, the tall, graceful, glamorous brunette and the short, slightly overweight and...not so glamorous blondebut ever since they had met on the first day of seventh grade there had been an instant connection between them which hadn't changed even with the inevitable ups and downs of the intervening years, plus it was kind of nice having someone in her life who wasn't involved in the whole vampires, demons and impending apocalypse side of things.

Though of course Nessa did know all about it, Hope would never have kept it a secret from her, she had even taken her out on patrol a couple of times when they had been fourteen until her parents had caught them sneaking out one night and had firmly laid down the law, under no circumstances was she to take defenceless civilians out on patrol, it was simply too dangerous.

It hadn't stopped her talking about it with Nessa, she pretty much told her everything, and while Nessa was interested in that part of her life she was just as keen not to get involved with it or go on patrol again, much to Hope's parents relief.

"Hey." Hope said quietly, slouching down next to Vanessa.

"What's wrong?"

Hope sighed heavily. "Mom aggro, she's really pissed at me for getting yet another detention for 'violent conduct'."

"But it wasn't even your fault," Vanessa protested. "Did you explain to her what happened?"

Hope smiled at her thankfully, she could always trust on Nessa for support when she needed it most. "Yes I did and no it didn't matter, all that matters to her is that there's yet one more black mark on my permanent record."

"Well that sucks, but look at the bright side you might actually get to finish that math assignment that's due tomorrow."

Hope groaned and held her head in hands. "If that's the bright side then you might as well just kill me now."

Vanessa stared at her friend for a moment. "You had another one of those dreams last night didn't you?" She asked gently.

Hope lifted her head up slowly. "How do you always know?"

"Because you always get that look on your face, you know, the impending doom one."

"Oh. It's a real pity you're not gay," Hope said teasingly. "Otherwise I might have asked you to marry me by now."

Vanessa chuckled softly. "That isn't even legal Hope, and unless something drastic happens to President Palin anytime soon it's not going to be for a while."

Hope rolled her eyes. "Don't even mention that name around me, I hear enough complaints about her at home from my Mom and about how she's undone all the good work that Obama did."

"Well it's true, I mean you just have to look-" Vanessa stopped when she saw the glare directed at her by Hope. "Fine I won't go into it, and by the way I did notice the fact that you changed the subject."

"Did I?" Hope said innocently, at that moment a faint peal of noise echoed around the school. "Guess we have to get to class though, wouldn't want to be late and add to my detention."

Vanessa sighed and shook her head as Hope jumped lithely off the bench and headed towards the school.

"You coming?" Hope called back to her. Vanessa's slid off the seat a lot less elegantly when compared to Hope, but there was no surprise in that, everything she did was less elegant then Hope, which might have bothered a lesser person but Vanessa was used to it.

She hurried to catch up to friend, hoping she could keep Hope out of trouble during the rest of the day and before her impending detention.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hmmm...four months for an update, so much for doing it more frequently, life has just been super busy lately because of Kevin Rudd and his "Education Revolution" so blame him for keeping me from writing. Anyway enough with my woes and on with the story and I will try to get these out sooner in the future.

The school day dragged itself by on leaden feet, made worse for Hope by what she knew waited for her at the end of it. It wasn't the detention in and of itself that she disliked, to be honest she was by now completely indifferent to another detention, she just detested any enforced period of time sitting still and when it occurred straight after an already long school day...well it made the slaying that night just that little bit more satisfying.

She sighed heavily and tuned out her English teacher as she droned on about something to do with Shakespeare, slipping back into her far more pleasant daydream involving her saving a beautiful damsel from a horde of ravenous vampires.

So it took her a few moments to realise the teacher had stopped talking and was staring directly at her.

"I see I've finally got your attention Miss Summers," her teacher said frostily, causing an outbreak of mirth amongst the rest of Hope's classmates. "I'm sure _you_ can provide the answer?"

"Ahhh..." Hope's mind raced furiously as she struggled to come up with some kind of a coherent response, they were studying Shakespeare so it had to have something to do with tortured or tragic love... and just when she needed it the angelic tolling of the lunch bell rang out and ended the lesson.

"All right class, we'll pick this up next time." The teacher stated, shooting a glare in Hope's direction.

Hope ignored the look and once again thanked the deity that seemed to be looking out for her today, detention aside this was turning out to be a reasonable day.

She almost running when she reached the door that led outside but slowed down as she went through, luxuriating in the mostly fresh air and open spaces and just enjoying not being cooped up inside a classroom.

Hope headed for the usual spot her friends hung out at, finding them lounging on a table underneath the old oak tree.

The whole gang was there, happily laughing and chatting away with each other, Vanessa was sitting closely to her boyfriend Jake, chastely holding his hand and further adding to their image as the stereotypical teenage 'steady' couple.

They had been dating since eighth grade and during that time had never once broken up, they nearly always agreed on everything and hardly even argued, but as clichéd and as sentimental as it was it did give her hope that one day she might find something similar for herself, the longest relationship she could lay claim to had lasted almost exactly a month and that was only because it had taken her over a week to screw up the courage to end things.

Next to Jake stood his best friend Hunter, tall, dark and full of energy, he was always quick to smile and crack a joke and Hope enjoyed having him around, he made the world seem a less serious and depressing place to live in.

And then there was Rachel...and to be frankly honest Hope wasn't quite sure why Rachel hung out with them. Rich, good-looking and previously popular she had been close friends with Ashley Jones THE Queen Bee of their high-school, but something had clearly happened recently between them because now Rachel spent most of her time with them and whenever she and Ashley crossed paths the only things they shared with each other were the various heated insults that flew with swift regularity.

Hope suspected that part of the reason Rachel spent so much time with them was because she had an incredibly obvious crush on her brother William, but Hope didn't have the heart to tell her that spending time with her was probably the worst possible thing she could do if she wanted to snag Will.

Hope exchanged greetings with everyone and slumped down on the table next to Vanessa.

"So how was English?" Vanessa asked.

"It was...good."

Vanessa studied her closely for a few moments. "You zoned out again didn't you?"

"No." Hope said defensively, maintaining the lie for a brief period under Vanessa's intense scrutiny before finally breaking. "OK fine, yes I did."

"Oh Hope," Vanessa sighed. "You were dreaming about Melissa Rogers again weren't you?"

"Maybe."

"Hey I have to back Hope up on this," Hunter cut in. "I mean that girl is seriously hot, have you seen the video for her latest song, I swear what clothes she does have are painted on."

"Ewww Hunter, you do realise there are two non-gay girls sitting at this table too right?" Rachel pointed out.

"Yes please," Hope said quickly. "Let's leave my purely imaginary love-life alone and move on to something far more interesting."

"So how went the slaying last night?" Jake asked quietly after a short, awkward silence.

Everyone in their little group was aware of her less then orthodox nocturnal activities, something which her parents were less than happy with. Vanessa had, of course, known for years and when she and Jake had begun to get serious she had accidentally let it slip one night, swearing him instantly to secrecy so, of course, he had then told his best friend Hunter...and well after that it had just seemed rude not to include Rachel into the whole thing too.

"Slow, as far as evil and the undead are concerned Boston's about as fun as logging on without an iPortal."

"Which for those of us without superpowers," Hunter replied. "Is a good thing."

Hope shrugged. "I guess, it's just I've heard my parents stories about what it was like to live on top of a Hellmouth and it sounds so exciting and cool-" She paused as she noticed everyone else looking at her strangely. "Except for all the innocent people dying I suppose." She mumbled.

"Yeah 'cause that'd be a real drag." Rachel said sarcastically.

The topic of conversation moved off the supernatural and onto the more natural and then eventually to Rachel's upcoming party.

"You guys are going to be there right?" Rachel asked anxiously.

The others exchanged glances. "Um sure."

"Yeah."

Wouldn't miss it."

"Great, oh there's Mandy I have to catch up with her." Rachel slid off the table. "Catch you guys later."

"Am I the only one who found that suspicious?" Hope asked, her gaze following Rachel's retreating figure.

"You mean Rachel inviting us to one of her parties, or the way she conveniently disappeared straight after we all had agreed to go?" Jake replied.

Hope thought about it for a second. "Both actually, and come to think of it have any of us even been inside her house before?"

Everyone else shook their heads.

"Hey maybe we're being unfair, I mean how likely is it that she's planning on doing something like...summoning a demon that feed on uncool students in order to trade us for regaining some of her lost popularity." Hunter joked.

"Hunter I don't think there's a demon that specifically feeds on uncool students...right Hope?" Vanessa looked at her uncertainly.

"I don't know, from my experience demons are like iPortal apps there's one for every occasion," Hope answered honestly. "Tbh I could do with some action, I might even get the added bonus of slaying some of the in crowd."

"Hope, that'd get you into way more trouble than just a couple of day's detention." Vanessa gently warned her.

Hope rolled her eyes. "I'd only do it if they were practising evil. Mom."

The lunch break sped by far too quickly for Hope's liking and soon she found herself stuck in Maths class, something for which, as far as she was concerned, she was genetically predisposed to suck at as no-one on the Summers side of the family had any liking for it and neither did Faith.

Her luck seemed to be holding though as she didn't manage to catch the teacher's attention once and was able to coast through the entire lesson. When the final bell rang out she jumped up, relief flooding through her being until it struck her what this meant, detention and yet another hour stuck in school.

She trudged wearily out of the classroom and down the hall to the detention room, receiving a sympathetic smile and wave from Vanessa, and surprisingly, and a little disturbingly from Rachel as well.

A shout of "Summers!" caused her to look around as she walked in the room, and she perked up a little when she realised its source.

Vanessa disparagingly described Krystal as 'Hope's detention buddy', but that was mainly due to the fact that Krystal had bullied her incessantly for years until Hope had finally put a stop to it, an act which had strangely earned her Krystal's respect and, if not her friendship, at least her understanding, and since they seemed to spend almost as much time in detention as each other they had ended up growing reasonably close, or at least as close as someone like Krystal would get to anyone.

"Hey." Hope greeted her warmly.

"Hey yourself," Krystal replied casually. "What are you in for this time?"

"An unprovoked assault of four upstanding and totally innocent members of the football team."

Krystal grinned wolfishly. "I'm sure they deserved it."

"They did, but unfortunately the Principal and pretty much everyone else didn't see it that way, hence the detention." Hope idly scanned the room as she spoke, seeing if anyone else she knew had gained the pleasure of detention but she stopped suddenly as a goddess appeared in the room and everything else faded into the background.

It wasn't an actual goddess, more like a stunningly hot girl but still Hope could have sworn she saw a shaft of sunlight shine down directly from the heavens and illuminate the girl where she stood, highlighting her perfect form and shimmering down the length of her long dark hair...

A sharp nudge in the ribs snapped her out of the daydream and back to reality. "You're drooling." Krystal whispered, a knowing smile playing across her lips.

"No I'm not." She answered, surreptitiously wiping the back of her hand over her mouth just to be sure.

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" A soft voice interrupted and Hope turned around to find the godde...hot girl standing right next to her.

"Um, no."

The girl flashed her a stunning smile and sat down. "Cool, thanks." She leaned over to put her bag on the ground and then turned back to Hope. "I'm Tamika by the way."

"Tamika...that's pretty." Hope instantly began kicking herself as soon as the words left her mouth. _'That's pretty. Oh that's super eloquent Hope, now she probably thinks you're mentally deficient in some way, or high, or both." _

However Tamika just smiled again. "Thanks," she paused, waiting for the other girl to supply her name. "So...this is normally the part where you give me your name or you trying to be all enigmatic and mysterious."

"Yes, I mean no, I mean I do have a...Hope." And the kicking continued unabated, _'Oh god it's like I have a disease or something.'_

Tamika giggled softly, a sound which Hope decided was by far the most beautiful thing she had ever heard in her life. 'So were you trying to say that you have a hope or that you hope you have a name?"

Finally Hope managed to mentally engage first gear. "No I meant that's my name, Hope."

"Hope." Tamika rolled the name around in her mouth, and Hope promptly had a new number one for her Most Beautiful Sound list. "I like it, it's cute."

"Really, you think it's cute," And suddenly, for a moment, detention didn't seem like such a bad place to be. "Because most people usually think less cute and more scary religious."

"So are they right," Tamika's eyes fell to the small cross on Hope's necklace. "Are you scary religious?"

"No, it's not like that," Hope shook her head emphatically. "It's kind of like a family name, one of my moms name's is Faith and so my parents thought they'd kind of follow the theme and name me Hope. I guess I'm lucky they didn't think of naming me Charity."

"Wait one of your moms," Tamika looked confused. "You mean you have like a step-mom or something?"

"Or something." Hope smiled weakly. _'Dammit just as things were starting to go well I had to go and say something stupid like that.'_

"OK people," The teacher at the front of the class shouted in a mostly successful attempt to get everyone's attention. "Be quiet, get logged on and start doing an assignment or homework or something constructive, you're not here to sit around and socialise for an hour, this is detention remember."

Hope reluctantly turned away from Tamika and to the screen in front of her, trying to concentrate on the algebra assignment that was due tomorrow. Algebra had never really made much sense to her after all maths was supposed to be about numbers, why someone had felt the need to throw letters into the equation as well she just didn't understand.

She managed to last an entire two minutes on her assignment before stealing a sideways glance and was pleasantly surprised to see Tamika doing the exact same thing, a small smile on those eminently kissable lips.

Hope's gaze quickly returned to the screen, as she furiously tried to ignore Krystal's muffled laugh and the blush that was creeping up her neck and beginning to darken her cheeks.

Then, just as she was seriously starting to be tempted to try slaying instead of solving her algebra assignment, a soft tone from the computer announced an arrival in her inbox.

She warily looked up at the teacher but he was engrossed in a book by some person called Stephenie Meyer to notice her lack of study so without further hesitation she opened the message.

'_What did u do to get stuck in here?'_ It read.

Hope chewed her lip thoughtfully, while she didn't want to start lying to Tamika so soon after meeting her she also didn't want her to know the circumstances behind her detention, Hope somehow doubted Tamika would be impressed knowing she had beaten up four members of the football team.

'_Skipped class,'_ she wrote hurriedly, as if writing faster would make the lie easier. _'How about u?'_

'_Decided spending time practicing my moves was more important than class __'_

'_Lol! U dance?'_

'_No. Play soccer.'_

That explained Tamika's figure and Hope actually found herself a little bit jealous, she and her brother had been banned from competing in any kind of organised sport since they were seven because the Council had been too afraid it would expose their 'special' abilities.

Hope checked on the teacher again, he was still reading, before returning to the latest message.

'_U going to Rachel Evans' party?'_

If Tamika was going to be at Rachel's party, demon or no demon, that confirmed her plans for Saturday night.

'_Sure, Y?'_

'_Maybe we could meet up there, talk some more?'_

Hope wondered how no-one else could hear her heart beating it was so fast and so loud.

'_OK, say about 7?'_

'_Gr8, see u there.'_

Hope spent the remainder of detention floating on a little private cloud of happiness, she had a date for Rachel's party, she actually had a date. It wasn't like she had never been out on a date before but between school, her Slayer duties and her sexual preferences there hadn't been a lot of time or opportunity for dating.

Saturday night was looking like it was going to be unforgettable.


	3. Chapter 3

A loud bang echoed around the house as the front door was thrown open and a blur of movement entered. It stopped briefly for a "Hi, Mom," and a kiss on Dawn's cheek before disappearing up the stairs and into its bedroom.

Dawn stared after the wake created by her daughter. "She seems in a good mood." She commented thoughtfully to Faith, who was making a far more sedate entrance into the house. "Usually after she's been in detention it's either an entire night of sulking in her bedroom or she goes out patrolling straight after getting home without so much as a word."

"Yeah, I think it might have something to do with that hot black girl I saw her chatting up."

"What do you mean she was chatting up a girl," Dawn looked at her sharply. "Did you hear what they were talking about? Did the other girl seem at all interested?"

Faith stared at her like she was crazy and sat down next to her. "Hey I might have super hearing and all but even I can't hear anything over a hundred yards and through a car door. What are you getting so worked up about anyway?"

"I just don't want her getting her hopes up unnecessarily again," Dawn explained. "I don't think I can deal with another Jessica Isles incident, I still can't look Mrs. Isles in the eye."

"Neither can I. I don't understand how a woman that ugly can have given birth to a girl that hot. Personally I think she's adopted."

An irritated look crossed Dawn's face. "Faith could you at least try to be serious for once in your life, Hope almost got expelled because she let her hormones got the better of her and mistakenly thought Jessica liked her, it can't happen again or she will get expelled."

Faith bit back the angry retort that was on the tip of her tongue and counted silently down from ten, remembering what the counsellor had said about controlling her anger, and then muttered a half-hearted apology.

Dawn sighed heavily and covered Faith's hand with her own. "No I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I've just been so stressed out with work lately and now the twins are getting older the whole prophecy thing's been weighing on my mind more and more."

"If you're too stressed I could help with that," Faith offered, brushing her lips across Dawn's cheek. "Relax you, take your mind off things."

Dawn's eyes closed as Faith laid a trail of kisses down her neck. "I thought your libido was actually supposed to slow down as you got older."

"It has slowed down. I don't want you all the time anymore, just most of it."

"It's not that I don't want to Faith," Dawn said breathlessly. "But the house is sort of occupied."

"She won't notice a thing," Faith whispered, sliding a hand in under Dawn's top and gliding it across her skin. "She'll be networking on her computer already and therefore completely dead to the outside world. She wouldn't hear a bomb going off in the next room let alone you."

"I still have to cook dinner and remember we're supposed to meet Giles at seven."

Faith paused and looked up at her. "That's tonight?"

"Uh huh."

"We could always have a quickie."

Dawn laughed softly and shook her head. "Ever the romantic." She leaned forward and kissed Faith lightly. "Raincheck?"

Faith disentangled herself and tried to contain the frustration she felt. "Sure."

"Hey I promise if you're really good or very, _very_, naughty, outfits might be involved."

A slow smile spread across Faith's face and the frustration seemed to melt away. "Outfits huh, guess that could be worth waiting for."

"I'm glad," Dawn said wryly. "Now come help me cook."

Before too long dinner was ready and the tantalising smell wafting through the house inevitably brought Hope crashing down the stairs to eat.

"Where's Will?" She asked as she sat down.

"He's staying at one of his friend's houses tonight." Dawn answered.

Any reply Hope may have made was muffled by the large amount of meatloaf she rapidly began shovelling in her mouth. Dawn bemusedly watched her daughter eat and was reminded her of Faith's eating habits when she was that age, until she caught a glimpse of Faith eating in a similar manner from the corner of her eye.

"Now remember Hope we're going to go see Giles at seven," Dawn pursed her lips and began eating in a more civilised manner. "Are you planning on going out patrolling tonight?"

Hope just nodded as she was unwilling to risk the inevitable wrath of her mom for speaking with food in her mouth.

"Well be careful, and make sure you're home by eleven."

Hope hurriedly swallowed the lump of food in her mouth so she could at least raise some protest to the over-moming. "Come on Mom you know Boston is a dead end town when it comes to the supernatural, the scariest thing I'll probably see is some drunk, homeless guy going on about the Mayan calendar or something."

"There are other dangerous things out there that have far more to do with the natural then the super, especially for a young girl out on her own, late at night in a big city," Dawn said firmly. "Just don't do anything silly OK."

Hope rolled her eyes. "Fine. So this meeting with Giles, would that have anything to do with all those tests he had me and Will run last week?" She asked, watching her mother intently.

Dawn hesitated before answering, unsure of how her daughter would react. After careful consideration she decided there was less harm in letting her know the truth. "Yes it is, we felt it was important to know what you and Will are capable of and your limitations in case anything happens in the future."

Hope shrugged casually. "Like the prophecy, that's cool, I mean it wouldn't exactly be the first time the Council have run tests on us."

"Right." Dawn smiled uncertainly, not quite sure how to read Hope's nonchalant acceptance.

The rest of dinner passed by with few words exchanged and they were all somewhat relieved to get away from the table and prepare to leave.

Dawn dispensed another 'Be careful' speech to Hope as she walked out the door, something which the teenager studiously ignored before slamming the door shut behind her.

"Well then," Dawn stood there, regarding the door for a moment after Hope had closed it. "I guess it's time we were going too."

* * *

Giles' apartment was exactly as you would have expected, old-fashioned and furnished mostly in wood and leather, thick curtains covered the windows and shut out the outside world. The main room was filled with light and heat coming from the crackling fire that burned merrily in the hearth.

Most of the walls were covered by floor to ceiling oaken bookshelves, their shelves full to overflowing with ancient, leather bound volumes whose titles were mostly in Latin or Greek though, wedged between two tracts on the history of vampire cults, there seemed to be a book about synchronised swimming.

The sheer volume of books made it perfectly clear that the new technology of the iPortal, and the access it granted to almost every written word in human history, had completely passed Giles by, just like every other new technology since the 1970's.

Giles himself was remarkably fit and mentally sharp for a man in his seventies, if a trifle deaf, and the little hair he now had left on the top of his head had slowly faded from an iron grey to a snowy white.

Dawn and Faith sat uncomfortably on the large, overstuffed sofa in front of the fire, somehow Giles still had the power to make them both feel like the awkward teenagers they had once been, rather than the senior and respected members of the Council they now were.

Giles stiffly shuffled in from the small kitchenette, carrying a tray upon which sat the inevitable teapot and biscuits. He set the tray down on the coffee table in front of his guests, before lowering himself gently into his favourite armchair opposite.

He went to make the tea but Dawn quickly shooed him away, preparing three cups and handing them out. Giles thankfully accepted his and let out a small sigh of pleasure as the first sip of hot liquid slid down the back of his throat.

"I take it this visit is about the twins?" He asked, getting straight down to business.

"You said on the phone that you had the results from their latest testing." Dawn said, a little nervously.

"Yes I do and they make for some rather interesting reading."

"What do you mean?"

"It seems the twins' abilities, powers, talents however you want to put it might have reached their peak," Giles explained. "They haven't really changed since the last time they were tested."

"Changed," Dawn said carefully. "What do you mean?"

Giles settled back comfortably into his chair and readied himself for a nice, long explanation. "When you compare a Slayer's strength, their reflexes, their agility against a normal person they're almost immeasurable, completely off the chart. You have to use a different scale just to measure them, even against elite athletes. In the same way when you compare Hope's strength, agility and reflexes against normal Slayers you have to go up another scale again, but if you chart the latest test results on that same scale they haven't really altered since the last time we measured them over a year ago."

"So she's not going to get any stronger?"

"It appears not." Giles answered cautiously.

"Oh thank god," Dawn leaned back into her chair. "Ever since she was three years old she's been finding new and stronger things she can break with her bare hands, hopefully that's all finished with now."

"And what about Will?" Faith asked softly.

"His 'peak' so to speak seems to be at about the same level as a normal Slayer." Giles replied.

"So he's basically a male version of a Slayer then?"

"Willow has always insisted that he isn't, that his power comes from a different source and not from within the Slayer line," Giles frowned in thought. "And he does lack the prophetic dreams that all Slayers receive, but to all other intents and purposes yes he is the male equivalent of a Slayer."

"Was there anything else we should know?"

"Well there was something the review committee did want me to raise with you..." Giles paused for a moment.

"Yes." Dawn encouraged him to continue.

"There's no delicate way to put this but some of the committee members were unimpressed with the twins fighting skills," Giles took another sip of his tea as he suddenly found his throat dry. "While their techniques were impeccable it was felt they lacked the initiative that only comes from real world experience, that they were too predictable and that in a difficult or treacherous fight their technique might break down and endanger them."

"Jefferies was on that committee wasn't he?" Dawn said coldly.

"He did manage to insinuate himself onto it, yes." Giles admitted reluctantly.

"The man's an idiot."

"He does have some...old-fashioned ideas about Slayers I agree." Giles said diplomatically.

"You mean that he believes it's alright to sacrifice us as long as it's for the greater good." Faith replied harshly.

"Nevertheless many on the Council feel that he does have a point when it comes to the twins," Giles continued doggedly. "If they are to face some great evil in the future they should have the necessary skills to defeat it."

"I'm not putting our children in unnecessary danger just to please someone like Jefferies, or the Council." Dawn said firmly.

"He is starting to gain a lot of support and some of his points are somewhat awkward to argue against. What about if they could be exposed to danger under reasonably controlled circumstances?" Giles suggested.

Dawn shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe that you're even considering this, you know the twins look up to you as their grandfather."

"And don't get me wrong I am extremely fond, but this is the way it's been done with generations of Slayers, including your sister."

"Who died twice because of it, I don't want either of my children to die Giles." Dawn and Giles glared at each other over the gently steaming teapot.

"What about the Cruciamentum Giles, are you thinking of bringing that back too and putting them both through it?" Faith asked quietly.

Giles looked startled, he had actually forgotten that Faith was even there she'd been so uncharacteristically silent through the argument, but he managed to recover his composure quickly. "Of course not, the Cruciamentum is an archaic and out-dated tradition."

"And putting them deliberately in harm's way isn't?"

"It would give them valuable experience which might save their life and the world one day." Giles argued stubbornly.

"I know I'm not Hope's Watcher, and mostly because of that ridiculous rule that I'm also her mother, but I am William's and I am a member of the Council and I'll let you know now that I will fight any move made in this direction with all my power." Dawn stated, setting the matter to rest. "I'm just thankful that Boston isn't at all like Sunnydale and is so lacking in 'controlled circumstances' danger."

* * *

Patrol was turning out to be as boring as Hope had feared, there hadn't even been a stray dog or a mugging to keep her interest, just endless hours wandering the backstreets and cemeteries of Boston. Hell she'd even welcome a rescue of a normal, non-demonic variety of cat stuck up a tree at this point.

She slowly made her way through yet another cemetery, humming the latest hit from Melissa Rogers under her breath as she casually twirled a stake in one hand.

She was about to turn around and head home when the unmistakable piercing cry of a girl in trouble grabbed her attention and sent her running in that direction.

"About damn time." Hope muttered under her breath as she athletically hurdled a low stone wall, then skidded to a halt as she spied three demons, of some species she wasn't familiar with, kneeling down beside the prostrate form of a girl lying in the grass.

"Hey! Leave her alone." Hope shouted for lack of anything more original, she hadn't bothered thinking of anything during the night's interminable patrol as she hadn't expected any action.

One of the demons remained where it was beside the girl as the other two rose to their feet and faced her. They actually looked reasonably human until you saw their faces which resembled blocks of wax that had sat beside a fire for far too long, their features had melted and sunk and long bits of flesh dangled from their cheeks and chin.

"You know you guys should really consider some kind of surgery," Hope commented lightly, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Because right now even Madonna looks normal compared to you."

The demons either didn't bother or were incapable of answering her, instead silently withdrawing long, sharp knives from their belts, the blades glittering in the moonlight. They spread out to either side of her, their moves perfectly in unison, and then slowly closed in.

Hope glanced down at her, unfortunately, wooden stake then back at the demons sharp, metallic knives.

"Crap." She whispered to herself. "Now why couldn't I carry something like that, or at the very least something invented after the Stone Age."

She sighed heavily and then, before the demons could flank her, she moved swiftly for the one to her left, her speed clearly catching the demon by surprise as it barely managed to raise its knife when she reached it.

It thrust out at her but she easily dodged the knife and caught the outstretched arm, twisting it, the snapping sound of breaking bones echoing in the night air.

The demon made a noise which Hope assumed was one of pain and dropped the knife, bending down she scooped it off the grass and, pirouetting in place she slashed out at the creature, almost decapitating it with one blow.

The second demon hesitated when it saw its comrade fall and Hope seized the opportunity, throwing the knife and burying it almost to the hilt in the demon's chest.

She turned to deal with number three but it was long gone, she squashed her disappointment at the tame ending and quickly made her way over to where the girl still lay. "It's OK, they've gone now you're going to be all..." The adrenaline and excitement of the fight drained away at the sight which greeted her eyes. "...right." She finished dully.

The girl was most definitely dead, the large pool of blood from her slit throat and widely staring eyes made that obvious, but it was the symbol carved into the girl's forehead that captured Hope's gaze and sickened her the most.

It looked like a stylized version of the letter A, vaguely resembling the symbol for anarchy, but it appeared older somehow and was certainly evil, just looking at it for a few seconds sent a chill down Hope's spine.

She turned away and swallowed hard on her recently digested dinner as it threatened to make a reappearance. She'd never actually seen a dead body up close before, well technically she had seen plenty of vamps but they had been moving and stuff, at least up to the point where she had staked them and they'd turned into very unmoving piles of dust.

This was different though, until a few minutes ago this had been a living, breathing human being, a girl like her, around her own age whose life had been brutally cut off before its time and for what, so some freaky, melted face demon could carve some obscure symbol into her cooling flesh, it just wasn't right.

Hope drew a shaky breath and gathered herself together, turning back to face the gruesome sight. She slowly knelt down in the grass and gently closed the girl's eyes, a tear trickling down her cheek, and then she reached for her iPortal and began to make the calls to all the appropriate people.

Author's Note: And here endth the opening chapters, things should hot up a bit from here with more action and less ground laying. In case some of you are confused the story is set in the future, around the year 2023 by my reckoning, hence the President Palin and the iPortal – think a mix of iPhone, iPod, blackberry, laptop, personal organiser and any other small handheld electronic device mixed together.


End file.
